I was thinking of becoming an environmental scientist, but I’m having second thoughts because of the pay? To those who have environment-related jobs, do you guys enjoy your job?
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One thing about jobs like that is, you get into it for the love, but the bigger money comes from getting out of the field and riding a desk
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I work in environmental remediation (or did until very recently). I didn’t make six figures, but I made more than enough to pay my rent and living expenses and still have some left over. I’ve been able to save up about $50k USD over the last six years working for the US Army Corps of Engineers in California after starting with virtually nothing. Of course, whether that is enough depends on you and your personal goals. That was still nowhere near enough to buy a house here, for example. As for whether I enjoyed it, there were parts that I enjoyed and parts I didn’t. I enjoyed doing fieldwork and I had great coworkers, but I hated having to deal with budgets and labor estimates and all the red tape that comes with Federal bureaucracy. I left the position recently, but it was due to the Trump administration’s interference in our mission and harassment of Federal employees rather than any factors I would consider a regular part of the job.
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Now retired, but for most of working life I was in environmental positions. The last job I had was as an ecologist in the Australian gas industry. This was 6 figure salary (in Australian $$).
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I worked for British government conservation agencies for 19 years, mostly desk jobs editing publications, managing biological data, and legal aspects. It sometimes felt worthwhile and sometimes like I was a character in 1984. The enjoyable aspects were having colleagues who were wildlife experts, and perks like being able to order any environment-related paper or book through the library (and unlimited, no questions asked photocopying). The pay was civil service rates and I was fairly lowly, two rungs up, so enough but not wealth. Fieldwork was mostly in my own time, and fed into the job but wasn’t an obligation. I am glad I never went for a field job because people who did sometimes got burned out by it and effectively lost their hobby.
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I have never worked in a paid environmental job, but I worked with college environmental management program staff on recruiting and event materials. As a graphic designer I eventually became aware that almost any career that involves doing something that has an element of fieldwork (and that includes creative fields!), the more freedom to explore, the more ‘fun tax’ you pay. So many young people getting into the field have a strong sense of purpose that you don’t see in many of the much higher-paying professions. And yep, getting behind a desk almost always does up your salary and down your fun time. Unless you stick to research and get some kind of sick thrill for funding scrabbling.
And funding is now an area of any research career that has suddenly become a very hot topic, given the current political/corporate atmosphere and knockdowns that are underway.
Also, the equally foggy crystal ball of technological impact. It seems more and more field work involves the use of high tech gear and AI analysis doing the work that would take huge teams to get even close a generation back. Again, also true with so many creative fields. Once that really kicks into a field, anyone below management gets treated more and more like an ‘unskilled’ worker, no matter how much time you’ve already put in. Skill landfills are endless these days.
Or, you can find a compromise career path and like most everyone, end up ‘working for the weekend’. Heck, even as a citizen scientist you can still have a lot of fun. (If you retire early and live long enough.)
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Such work, if it is in line with education, is enjoyable and gives satisfaction, but usually does not involve high remuneration, unfortunately this is the case in professions related to biology/nature…
I am retired now, but the last 20 years of my career was spent working for a state fish and wildlife agency. The pay wasn’t wonderful, but the benefits were pretty good (especially considering I now have a small pension for the rest of my life). I loved my work and my colleagues were wonderful, for the most part. I lived a modest lifestyle, but could always afford what I needed, including owning a small house (but I never had kids, which may well change one’s priorities significantly). So I would say it depends, for you. What is more important to you - being happy and fulfilled in your work, or owning the best of everything and taking lots of expensive trips? There is certainly a middle ground there, but only you can really determine what’s important to you, and you may not really know what you want till you try one direction or the other.
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I’m one year into retirement after 30+ years as a wildlife biologist with the US Forest Service. My experience was similar to what @lynnharper and @screedius and others have posted. During my first year of retirement I realized why I had loved my work, in that i was basically hired to go look for things, primarily species of concern and their habitat, of which there was a large variety. One day i might spend the morning searching for goshawk nests and in then that night calling spotted owls, the next day i might be looking for gray wolves, checking trail cams and looking for tracks, then the next day i might be crawling thru lava tubes looking for bats or cave-adapted invertebrates, and then, inevitably, the fourth day i’d be stuck in some damn day-long interdisciplinary meeting drinking way too much coffee and wishing i was out doing one of those other things. I always hated it when my job got in the way of my work. But like others said, i had some great co-workers, the pay was enough to make a living on and with it came the non-monetary forms of compensation like working on public lands, staying mentally and physically active, being paid to be out in landscapes where others had to take vacations to visit, etc. But, having said that, not sure that salaries have kept pace w the cost of living, esp the cost of housing, such that now those non-monetary forms of compensation may no longer be enough if a person can’t afford housing or the cost of living, especially for entry level positions. But, overall, i definitely enjoyed it.
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what do you like about being an environmental scientist? how much money would you like to be happy / satisfied? what are the higher-paying jobs that you’re considering?
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I work as an environmental educator (basically the two words nobody wants to pay for) and I enjoy my job deeply. It is stressful with funding and some of the interactions I have with the public but I wouldnt trade that in 1000 years for a job that paid more outside of the field.
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I want to protect and conserve environments, maybe restore, also keep water quality clean, stuff like that.
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Another option is to approach it from the side. We have pilots who volunteer their time for nature surveys - counting whales offshore …
Or train in the varied modern technology - which is also applied to nature conservation.
There is another thread about the skill set you need. Start with a biology degree … or not even.
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you didn’t answer all of my questions, but you don’t need to be an environmental scientist to achieve the goals you’ve listed here. it’s not exactly the same situation, but this is an example of the sort of thing i’m talking about: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/jobs-at-the-intersection-of-design-and-nature/53982.
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I want enough money to support my family, perhaps buy a house… I had considered vet but apparently it’s depressing so I won’t be doing that.
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Not only is being a vet depressing; it’s also extremely challenging, since you have to be a surgeon, a dentist, a family doc, etc., all rolled into one.
And if you’re on call, be prepared to rush to the clinic at 3 AM because Mr Whiskers has the sniffles, and the owner decided that it’s an emergency!
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I know you are a younger user and as a young adult working through academia and the “green collar” job market some advice:
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You don’t have to focus too much on a specific job title(unless you have qualifications that enable you to be highly specialized) if you want a job vaguely related to nature keep all avenues open and grab the opportunities you find
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Unfortunately the world we live in is not the same it was 20 or 50 years ago, so for now depending on where you are some of your goals around money might be unattainable no matter the job title, don’t set your expectations too high
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Sometimes doing what you enjoy and making money don’t have to be combined, you outlined some wants:
these can also be achieved by volunteering in your free time or working together with other people. While it does seem ideal to combine your passion and your source of income, it is not for everyone, try it out and maybe it is not for you. I know many older naturalists who do meaningful environmental work and even publish scientific work but worked a blue collar job through most of their career
- Life is very flexible and you don’t have to follow rigid career paths and job titles, I’m sure as time goes on you will start to figure it out
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Good point. You can make A LOT more money in the trades, and arguably do more for conservation by buying land to preserve habitat, etc.
AI will not be coming to unclog your sink anytime soon. We need the trades!
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Since you are in the same country as I am, and are still pre-career, I would say not not to stress to much about starting your forever career and locking yourself in immediately. Not sure if you have considered the Gap Year thing. I think its a great way to break up education, to try some things, and see what your vibe really is. The gap year I had between High School and Uni, really helped me figure out my path. I had initially been heading down the Adventure Leadership/Outdoor Ed path, before turning to the Ecology path. I dont know if you have already been doing some volunteering either wth DOC, or other outdoors groups. But its a good way to start making connections, and asking people the pros/cons of what they do.
All paths have tradeoffs, and benifits, its good to do some exploring whilst figuring out which ones work for you.
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Thank you so much! I have several months before university next year, so I might do some volunteering, thanks!
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